Blog of a Middle Aged Athlete

The Houston Marathon is 3 1/2 weeks away, and I’m at the end of the second trimester of my recover-train-taper schedule between the marathons in San Antonio and Houston.  The training has gone well, and although my mileage has been averaging 40+ miles for each of the past few weeks, including long runs of 17 and 18 miles, I feel like I’m not doing enough.  I guess a “sane” person would say that the workouts are getting easier due to the cooler weather conditions and being in better shape.  Whatever the reason, the fact that I didn’t follow a 16 or 20 week training plan between races feels odd.

Now come the holidays, and I need to find time to fit in runs in between the opening of gifts and stuffing of my belly (or should I just call that fueling?), not to mention the Christmas and New Year’s parties, which start tonight, offering plenty of opportunities to overindulge.  Life is a series of trade-offs, and marathon training is no exception.

I am beginning to formulate my race strategy for Houston.   I will not reveal it here (yet), as my research is not complete.  I will search the internet for race reports from previous years to understand the course, and combine that with my own experience and training to come up with a way to set a PR.  Oh yea, did I mention that I decided to take “baby steps” to get to that Boston Qualifying time?  You see, I realized it might have been a little aggressive for me to jump from a 3:43 finish in my first marathon to get a 3:20 BQ time in under a year.  Heck, I haven’t PR’d in 3 races!  So I’m setting the following goals for Houston (easiest first).

1. Set a PR (less than 3:34:45)
2. Go sub 3:30
3. BQ (< 3:20)

I plugged my last half marathon time into a race time calculated I found online, and it said I could get a 3:23 marathon.  Of course, my half marathon time was on a hilly course, and the Houston marathon is a flat course, so maybe with a little help from Mother Nature…

Merry Christmas to everyone, now let’s go run!

Due to the 5 marathons I have run this year, it has been 1 year since I had run a half marathon.  Why did I wait so long?!  Despite the cold temps around 40 degrees and the light rain that persisted throughout the race, I had a blast.

It was nice to run a race and not to have to worry too much about pacing or bonking.  The course was definitely hilly, but I still managed a 1:35:58, which is a new half marathon PR for me.  I used the race as my official (psychological) kick off point to transition from “recovery mode” to “training mode” again.  The Houston marathon is in 5.5 weeks, and I want to set a new PR.

In hindsight, I might have been a little aggressive in thinking that I could go from first time marathoner to BQer in under 1 year.  I have really struggled with the 7:37 pace that would be necessary.  Instead of going for the BQ goal of 3:20 in Houston, I think am going to mellow out a bit and try to run my first sub-3:30 race.  From there, I can worry about a BQ.  However, I can always change my mind, right?